Club History
Early years (1978-1999)
Formed in 1978 by a group of members of Viking Youth Centre, the club was originally named 'Vikings' and began playing in the Gloucester & District Sunday League Division 6.
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The club changed its name to Barnwood United at some point between 1993 and 1995. The club was still competing as Vikings as late as 1992-93, recorded as the reserve team won Stroud and District Football League Division 4. The earliest record of Barnwood United comes in 1995-96, the reserve team finishing as runners-up in Stroud and District Football League Division 3.
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In 1983 the club joined the grassroots Football pyramid, entering into the Stroud and District Football League Division 4. At this time they played both Saturday and Sunday football. In 1986 the club amassed 5 trophies across Saturday and Sunday football and gained promotion to Stroud and District Football League Division 1, having 3 successive back to back promotions. In 1987 the Sunday league side was promoted to the Sunday League Premier division.
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In 1989 the club won Stroud and District Football League Division 4 and gained promotion to Gloucestershire Northern Senior League Division 2 for the first time, and were subsequently promoted to Division 1 in 1992. This remains the highest step of the Football pyramid that the club has reached, which they did emulate again in 2009.
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The late 1980s saw the cessation of the club participating in Sunday League as they focussed their efforts on Saturday football. This coincided with the creation of a Reserve team who won Stroud and District Football League Division 6, 5 and 4 in 1988, 1993 and 1995 respectively.
In 1999/2000 an aging talent pool and lack of squad depth led to the difficult decision to withdraw from Gloucestershire Northern Senior League and operate just one side. This was so that the club could focus efforts on developing a new young squad in Stroud and District Football League Division 3.
Powelly years (2000-2021)
In 2000 Phil Powell was coming to the end of his playing days at Barnwood United, where he had been playing since 1991. He was appointed as manager, initially as player/manager and he recruited Herbie Ellis as his assistant manager and fitness coach. The first signs of the club rebuilding on the pitch was in 2005 when they were runners-up in the Gloucestershire FA Junior County Cup. The following season 2005/06 reserve team was reformed and entered into Stroud and District Football League Division 6 under the stewardship of Mike Bollands.
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In 2005 the club won Stroud and District Football League Division 1 for the second time in its history, a back to back success after winning Stroud and District Football League Division 2 the previous year. The club was denied entry to the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League as a ban was still in place following their withdrawal in 1999/2000. The first team remained in Stroud and District Football League Division 1, winning it again in 2008 to secure promotion back to Gloucestershire Northern Senior League Division 2.
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Promotion back to Gloucestershire Northern Senior League Division 1 followed in 2009 after a 2nd place finish in Division 2 where in 2010 the club achieved their highest league finish of 12th out of16 teams.
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In 2010 the reserve side earned promotion to Stroud and District Football League Division 3 to give the club an identical footing to where they had been back in 1999/2000.
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In 2013 the club were relegated out of Gloucestershire Northern Senior League and entered another transitional period, with the reserve side also being relegated to Stroud and District Football League Division 5.
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In 2018 the club won Stroud and District Football League Division 1 for a fourth time in dramatic fashion[8]. Heading into the final games of the season Barnwood were top of the league on goal difference, by just a single goal. They needed to equal or better the result of their title challengers Frampton United Reserves. Barnwood won 6-0 and clinched the title by 2 goals, restoring promotion back to the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League.
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In 2018 the reserve side gained promotion back to Stroud and District Football League Division 3.
2021-present
Midway through the 2020/21 season, Phil Powell stepped down from his role as first team manager, with Craig Salter appointed his successor.
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Both the 2020/21 and the previous 2019/20 seasons saw the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League competition suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic and its aftermath, the cost of living crisis, presented significant off-field challenges for Salter to manage early in his tenure.
In 2022 Chris Coward and Alex Diett formed a Barnwood United Under 11s for the 2022/23 season, establishing the first youth team for the club.
Crest and colours
The original Barnwood United club crest was created by Tony Brown. As a lifelong Aston Villa fan, Brown chose claret & blue with gold trim. Key elements of the original club crest include:
Trees representing woods.
An owl which is intended to represent a barn owl so that, together with the woods, this signifies Barnwood (Barn [owl] - wood). However the image depicts an owl with pointy ears, which a barn owl does not have.
A football to represent the nature of the club.
A Viking helmet in honour of the Clubs prior name.
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The crest also adorns an established ('EST.') date. Images don't provide total clarity of the year it represents. Vikings was founded in 1978 and the date the club name changed to Barnwood United was at some point between 1995 and 2000.
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In 2020 the club sanctioned a revamp of the badge, in order to modernise it and make available high quality resolution images. The new badge deliberately remained recognisable to the original. Notable alterations included:
A simplified colour palette; removal of the gold outline around the trees, a change of the football to be gold outline with no trim, a change of the text from black to gold, use of only gold in the owl. This reduced the number of colours from 7 (claret, blue, gold, green, beige, white, black) down to just 4 (claret, blue, gold, green).
The pointy owl ears became less prominent to be more identifiable as a barn owl.
Club crest early 2000s
